Originally, husband only meant the male head of a house; married, widowed or single. It was only from very late 13th century that it came to mean as a man married to a woman.
Husband is believed to have come from hus = house; and bondi = occupier of land or house, tiller of soil.
Husbandry evolved from there, to mean cultivation and management of crops, animals, or farms in general. 'Animal Husbandry' is a common usage. India has an Animal Husbandry Minister in government. Probably other nations too.
The word husband gradually came to mean as the main, if not the sole, provider of a family. Of course, today, the word means neither someone who is wedded only to a woman nor someone who is the sole or main provider of a family.
Husband can also mean to use resources economically, or someone who uses resources economically. (How many husbands actually use resources economically, is open to debate.)
There are a couple of other interesting related words:
Husbandable, means suitable for husbandry or cultivation.
Husbandage, is the money paid to the manager (or husband) of a ship.
(This blog entry is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2018")
Informative post. I went checking for the meaning of the word, when I first heard about the minister in charge of animal husbandry.
ReplyDeleteThank, Vijay.
DeleteInteresting and informative post. Didnt knew so much about these two words and their linkage. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Shilpa.
DeleteEtymology can be very interesting and it's amazing how many twists and turns there are to the meaning of so many words through the ages.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kanika.
DeleteThanks Pradeep. Learned a few new words today.
ReplyDeleteThanks, SG.
DeleteInteresting post. I always thought animal husbandry was a strange term.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jenny.
DeleteEtymology always interests me
ReplyDeletehere from Second thoughts First
Yes, Pooja, many common words have interesting stories behind them.
DeleteThis was quite informative and interesting .
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jaish.
DeleteWow you have really interesting posts. I didnt know that there is link between both the words, despite using them since forever. Thanks for coming up with this! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Shesha.
DeleteInformative post
ReplyDeleteThanks, Aparna.
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